Red Bees and Red Honey

I got sent this article from a friend and thought it was kinda mind boggling. Apparently in Red Hook (Brooklyn) beekeepers are finding RED honey. Like maraschino cherry red! What struck me as funny are the beekeepers, they cannot see why a bee would go and eat such a thing. There is a maraschino cherry factory within range of flight for the bees. Bee's are opportunistic, whatever is easiest and calorie dense they will go to it... red dye and all.

The beekeepers make it sound like, how could they? or don't they know it's junk food?  Of course not! If humans lived "hive-minded" and without grocery store's like bee's do, we wouldn't hesitate at a bright red sugar flowing river of calories, we would dive right in! It sucks though for the honey production because apparently it tastes like cough medicine, syrupy and too sweet.

At the end of the article one of the beekeepers makes mention of the color of the bees returning with this red syrup inside them. "When the sun is a bit down, they glow red in the evenings," he said. "They were slightly fluorescent. And it was beautiful." 


The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook article at The New York Times.

picture is also from the article.